After a thoroughly informative and inspiring visit from Kathy Miller, co-founder of Michael Miller Fabrics, during our February Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting each of the guild members was generously supplied with 8 fat eighths of their new line of Cotton Couture Solids. Now, one could treat this as a lovely gift, no strings attached, but the real gift in it is actually a design challenge. Any member who chooses (and there have already been a few, uploading photos to the PMQG flickr page) is invited to design a 15"x18" pieced block using the cotton couture fabrics with which we were supplied and Kathy Miller will select about 16 blocks to be included in a quilt that Michael Miller will feature in their booth at Spring Quilt Market in May 2012.

I should have prefaced this post by saying that I found out this week that I did not have a quilt chosen to be part of the MQG Showcase at Fall Market in Houston this year. And so it goes. However, this information was a bit disheartening (although not at all surprising!) and at the same time is forcing me to endeavor that much more to make an impact. But I don't know quite how to do that.

So, I've been sketching in the ol' sketchbook, and translated a few of the more promising designs into EQ7 so that I could play with the colors. The ones I keep going back to so far are these:

(a variation on my "dorm room cots" pattern that I've been drafting)

(a new design)

(a mock-up of an improv block)

I went ahead and pieced a block, which I think turned out well, but not sure that it's a "challenge winner" (especially after seeing the blocks showing up in the group pool).

so, being the person I am, I'll be making one or two or four more blocks, over-thinking all the way, and have NO IDEA what they're actually looking for, and likely miss the mark.

Is this what it's all about??